Friday, August 28, 2015

City Hall Insider: City Council notes from around the East Bay, Sept. 1

WETLAND MITIGATION Two areas at Alameda Point have been identified for a potential Wetland Mitigation Bank that could bring the city millions in new revenues, said a staff report. Nearly 158 acres of wetlands near the Oakland Estuary and around 12 acres of shoreline at Seaplane Lagoon could be cleaned and conserved by selling credits to developers in the market for environmental requirements by other regulatory agencies, said the report. Supply for these type of mitigation projects is low. Shoreline south of the Bay Bridge is currently using the process, as is Redwood City, and soon, Newark, said the report. The city believes such a plan could yield one credit for developers for around $450,000 an acre. It is also noteworthy that the proposed sites are rare for this type of project, the report said. “Tearing up concrete and creating a new wetland, as would be done in both the City’s sites, is rare in an urban environment.”

HARBOR BAY HOTEL APPEAL In Alameda, the council will hear an appeal of a recent decision by the city’s planning commission approving a 100-room hotel at 2350 Harbor Bay Parkway in Bay Farm. The opinion, handed down on July 13, was appealed 10 days later by the labor union UNITEHERE! Local 2850. Later, the same day, Alameda Mayor Trish Spencer called for a hearing over the appeal. Specifically, the union believes the project lacks sufficient parking. A condition set forth by the planning condition requires the applicant to procure 43 off-site parking spaces, but it “does not solve this problem,” the union said, in its appeal, “because it does not require the parking spaces to be close enough to the hotel to be practical as overflow parking." The hotel project should not be exempt for in-fill development under the California Environmental Quality Act, the union also asserts. City staff is recommending the City Council uphold the planning commission’s decision.

APPROVAL FOR 52-UNIT HOUSING PROJECT A set of warehouses on nearly three acres at 2100 Clement is set become 52 units of townhomes and a park. The City Council will discuss approval of the project Tuesday night .ENTIRE COUNCIL AGENDA

FREMONT/Sept 1, 7 p.m.Response to grand jury report over city emails

I.T. SOLUTIONS In June, the City of Fremont’s government email archiving system was slammed in an Alameda County grand jury report. The report faulted the city for deleting some unflagged government emails after just 30 days. It also admonished the city for leaving the onus on city workers to decide whether or not emails were archived or left unchecked and automatically deleted after a month. On Tuesday night, city’s I.T. Department will offer the City Council its five-year strategic plan. Included is a pledge to find a solutions to the email archiving problem by the end of this year, said a city staff report. Another notable I.T.-related issue—installation of 10 surveillance cameras around freeway entry points around Fremont—is slated to begin in later this month, said staff. The controversial item was unanimously approved by the council in July. In addition, the city is studying the feasibility of constructing citywide broadband and Wi-Fi in Fremont. The project could be city-owned and operated, said the report, and is expected to be incorporated into the new downtown area plan. ENTIRE COUNCIL AGENDA